WE DIG IN 43 



was not unattractive against the green background 

 when topped by the yellow of the thatched roof. 



With this thatching too we took extra pains. On 

 our dwellings we had a double roof to make an air 

 space and seciu'e greater coolness in summer. 



On the interior walls we applied a shellac of paint 

 and glue, and papered the whole with Marduff, or 

 rough caHco sheeting, which sometimes serves in 

 British East Africa as ctirrency. This done, Osa 

 took the wooden cases which contained my photo- 

 graph materials and which were of fine smooth boards 

 and made good flooring for our living quarters. 



We were not without comforts. Our living room 

 was fourteen by seventeen, had a fireplace, a kitchen 

 and bathroom in back — we had brought along a tub — • 

 and there was a porch in front. We also had a house 

 for sleeping quarters; a store house, a laboratory 

 building, a dark room, and a dwelling for such guests 

 as might take it into their heads to come on from 

 America, though there seemed little chance of that. 

 Aroimd the garden, like a row of barracks, were the 

 porters' and native boys' huts, of the usual crude 

 construction which they seem to prefer. As their 

 stuccoing with handsful of mud hastily thrown on did 

 not stand much weather I could foresee much time 

 lost in repairs every time we had a storm. However, 

 it is useless to try to train the natives in the white 

 man's ways in so far as their own living is concerned. 



